... the child's consecration of his toy goes far deeper than yours, because the child is so innocent. You are cunning. You buy an idol, and in the presence of the priests and pundits, amid noisy brass bands, you declare your idol has now been invested with the divine! But deep down you know that this god is nothing but a purchased one, and that even then you haggled to get a bargain, and that the...

.... [NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi discourses: Nahim Ram Bin Thaon. It is being edited for publication, and this version is for reference only.] Question BELOVED OSHO, THE ZEN MASTER HOTEI USED TO TRAVEL AROUND WITH A BAG ON HIS SHOULDER, GIVING OUT SWEETS TO CHILDREN AND PLAYING WITH THEM. IF A ZEN DEVOTEE WERE TO MEET HIM ON THE ROAD, HOTEI WOULD SIMPLY BOW DOWN TO HIM AND SAY, "GIVE A...

... walk along the same road, following the same direction, on your way to the shop or the office, but now there is tension. The road is the same, the direction is the same, you are the same, but now you are going somewhere, you have a destination. If you are late or don't get there for some reason, there will be problems, so now there is tension. But in the morning, although you walked the same road you...

... is a goal to be reached, business has come in. Now this will be a little difficult to understand, because we think that if a man has given up his shop and gone to the Himalayas, he has left all business. But if there is still a motive in his mind, then he is still doing business. If he is thinking he will attain to the divine by sitting in the Himalayas, then he is just continuing his business. As...

... psychiatrist because he couldn't sleep. The psychiatrist told him to count sheep till his mind became so bored that he fell asleep. A week later the man returned to the psychiatrist looking completely worn out, as though he had not slept at all since his last visit. The psychiatrist looked at him and said, "Why, whatever happened? Did counting sheep not work?" "Oh yes," replied the...

.... He hangs in the middle. In dropping his bag on the ground, Hotei symbolizes that the first step for a seeker is to drop the world, to drop the whole load, to dump the whole mind. The bag was the only thing that Hotei had. He had nothing else for demonstration so he simply dropped his bag, indicating that the seeker has first to throw all away. And the whole task of a siddha, a fulfilled one, is to...

... just children!" And to the children themselves we say, "You have to learn to control yourself. This is not the right way to behave." We teach them to blunt their sensitivity. I was a guest at a friend's house. We went out in his car to visit someone, and his young son came with us. He drove with his son sitting beside him, and left him in the car when we went into the house. When we...

... restaurant they were discussing what will happen to them; life will become dull. A man heard it and he said, "Don't be worried. You go to the shop across the street, because whoever goes to Alaska necessarily goes to that shop. They have everything you need." They said, "We don't think that he will be able to supply what we need, but there is no harm, let's take a chance." They went in...

... have to fill your house completely with something this money can buy.'" The money was so little.... They thought of many things - bringing roses and filling the whole house with roses - but the money was not enough. So the first one went to the municipal corporation of the city, because the cheapest thing he could purchase was the rubbish that the municipal trucks collect. He told them, "...

...;Rather than throwing it away, just dump it into my palace. Fill it completely, that is the condition." And for that much money they were ready, there was no question. They were going to throw it out anyway, outside the city: "This will save time, and he is giving money too." But they could not believe what he was going to do! He said, "You don't bother about it. It is a very...

... happy, and they both were looking at the third, what he was doing, because he was not doing anything at all. The evening came, and the king came to visit. He went to the first house. It was stinking, he could not enter it. But the son said, "The house is completely full, not a single inch has been left empty." The king said, "I accept your word. I will not go in." The second he...

... all the family property, except the home and garden, was disposed of. The last piece of Capernaum property (except an equity in one other), already mortgaged, was sold. The proceeds were used for taxes, to buy some new tools for James, and to make a payment on the old family supply and repair shop near the caravan lot, which Jesus now proposed to buy back since James was old enough to work at the...

... disturbance of this sort. (1397.6) 127:2.8 Something had to be done. He must state his position, and this he did bravely and diplomatically to the satisfaction of many, but not all. He adhered to the terms of his original plea, maintaining that his first duty was to his family, that a widowed mother and eight brothers and sisters needed something more than mere money could buy — the physical necessities of...

... universal favor; the division of sentiment was never fully overcome. And this, augmented by other and subsequent occurrences, was one of the chief reasons why he moved to Capernaum in later years. Henceforth Nazareth maintained a division of sentiment regarding the Son of Man. (1398.3) 127:2.11 James graduated at school this year and began full-time work at home in the carpenter shop. He had become a...

... of his indwelling Monitor, just such a Monitor as all normal mortals on all postbestowal-Son worlds have within their minds. So far, nothing supernatural had happened in this young man’s career except the visit of a messenger, dispatched by his elder brother Immanuel, who once appeared to him during the night at Jerusalem. 3. The Eighteenth Year (A.D. 12) (1398.5) 127:3.1 In the course of this year...

... house shop and help Mary about the home. With the financial pressure thus eased for the time being, Jesus decided to take James to the Passover. They went up to Jerusalem a day early, to be alone, going by way of Samaria. They walked, and Jesus told James about the historic places en route as his father had taught him on a similar journey five years before. (1399.1) 127:3.2 In passing through Samaria...

... witness at Jerusalem, thus seeking to lessen the shock such as he himself had experienced on his first visit to the temple. But James was not so sensitive to some of these sights. He commented on the perfunctory and heartless manner in which some of the priests performed their duties but on the whole greatly enjoyed his sojourn at Jerusalem. (1399.3) 127:3.4 Jesus took James to Bethany for the Passover...

... commonwealth of Israel. That morning, as they paused on the brow of Olivet to view the temple, while James exclaimed in wonder, Jesus gazed on Jerusalem in silence. James could not comprehend his brother’s demeanor. That night they again returned to Bethany and would have departed for home the next day, but James was insistent on their going back to visit the temple, explaining that he wanted to hear the...

... his inquiries Jesus only made reply, “My hour has not yet come.” (1399.5) 127:3.6 The next day they journeyed home by Jericho and the Jordan valley, and Jesus recounted many things by the way, including his former trip over this road when he was thirteen years old. (1399.6) 127:3.7 Upon returning to Nazareth, Jesus began work in the old family repair shop and was greatly cheered by being able to...

... meet so many people each day from all parts of the country and surrounding districts. Jesus truly loved people — just common folks. Each month he made his payments on the shop and, with James’s help, continued to provide for the family. (1399.7) 127:3.8 Several times a year, when visitors were not present thus to function, Jesus continued to read the Sabbath scriptures at the synagogue and many times...

... friends and stanch admirers among both the young men and the young women of Nazareth. (1400.3) 127:3.11 In September, Elizabeth and John came to visit the Nazareth family. John, having lost his father, intended to return to the Judean hills to engage in agriculture and sheep raising unless Jesus advised him to remain in Nazareth to take up carpentry or some other line of work. They did not know that the...

... Nazareth family was practically penniless. The more Mary and Elizabeth talked about their sons, the more they became convinced that it would be good for the two young men to work together and see more of each other. (1400.4) 127:3.12 Jesus and John had many talks together; and they talked over some very intimate and personal matters. When they had finished this visit, they decided not again to see each...

... afford it, Jesus had a strange longing to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover. His mother, knowing of his recent experience with Rebecca, wisely urged him to make the journey. He was not markedly conscious of it, but what he most wanted was an opportunity to talk with Lazarus and to visit with Martha and Mary. Next to his own family he loved these three most of all. (1404.3) 127:6.4 In making this trip...

... pausing to look upon the temple and the gathering throngs of visitors. He had a strange and increasing aversion to this Herod-built temple with its politically appointed priesthood. He wanted most of all to see Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Lazarus was the same age as Jesus and now head of the house; by the time of this visit Lazarus’s mother had also been laid to rest. Martha was a little over one year...

... older than Jesus, while Mary was two years younger. And Jesus was the idolized ideal of all three of them. (1404.5) 127:6.6 On this visit occurred one of those periodic outbreaks of rebellion against tradition — the expression of resentment for those ceremonial practices which Jesus deemed misrepresentative of his Father in heaven. Not knowing Jesus was coming, Lazarus had arranged to celebrate the...

... graduated at the synagogue school this year and prepared to begin work at the small bench in the home carpenter shop. Although the estate of their father was exhausted, there were prospects that they would successfully fight off poverty since three of them were now regularly at work. (1405.4) 127:6.12 Jesus is rapidly becoming a man, not just a young man but an adult. He has learned well to bear...

.... [NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi discourses: Nahim Ram Bin Thaon. It is being edited for publication, and this version is for reference only.] Question BELOVED OSHO, HEARING YOUR DISCOURSE ON 'RAMA THE ONLY REFUGE' I REMEMBERED YOUR DECLARATION IN THE ANANDSHILA MEDITATION CAMP: "I HAVE COME TO AWAKEN, NOT TO TEACH. SURRENDER AND I WILL TRANSFORM YOU. THIS IS MY PROMISE." PLEASE...

... one hour if you are sick the other twenty-three hours of the day? Health and sickness are the result of an internal flow. If you are healthy for twenty-three hours of the day, you will be healthy for all twenty-four hours, because the internal flow cannot suddenly be broken for just one of those hours. The current that is flowing goes on flowing. Meditation cannot come about just because you visit a...

... temple or mosque or gurudwara.. If you were not awake in the shop, in the marketplace, or at home, how can you all of a sudden be awake in the temple? Nothing is going to come about suddenly, when it is not part of an internal flowing. This is why Buddha has said that meditation can happen only if you are meditative for twenty-four hours a day. So understand well that meditation is not just one of...

... happen. The bank vault is not really safe at all. Thieves, communists, the state, can snatch it away. The protection of the bank is unreliable. But to steal from the memory system is not so easy, though that too is happening now. Ways are being devised to make the theft from the memory system possible. Until now, the memory system never changed with a change of power in the state, but efforts are afoot...

... rendered obedient. If soldiers are sent off to war, they can be rendered fearless. It is simply a matter of erasing their awareness of death, and they will act without fear, as if there is no death. Now the means exist to erase, change, steal or renew memory. But this is only possible because memory is also a commodity. There is only one phenomenon that cannot be annihilated by anybody, and that is...

... concentration can also run dry and become lifeless. Meditation is never flooded and never runs dry. It is steady within itself. Wakefulness is attained through meditation and meditation is surrender. Concentration is attained through willpower, meditation through surrender. Surrender means abandoning oneself to the whole, becoming one with it. Nahin Ram Bin Thaon - become one with Rama who is everywhere...

.... [NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi discourses: Nahim Ram Bin Thaon. It is being edited for publication, and this version is for reference only.] Question BELOVED OSHO, YOUR WORDS INDICATE THAT THE COMING TEN YEARS ARE GOING TO BE FULL OF CRISIS AND DISASTER, AND ARE GOING TO BE DECISIVE FOR THE HUMAN RACE. YOUR ARRIVAL IS ALSO PERHAPS CONNECTED WITH THE FACT THAT MAN COMES TO MINIMUM HARM...

... heaven will be decorated you will never find your way to heaven. The gates of heaven are totally clear of decoration; they do not even bear a sign saying, "Welcome to heaven!"- not even this much, it is not needed. In fact it is the unreal that has to advertise, it is unhappiness that has to offer a welcome, it is hell that issues invitations! There is a ghee - purified butter - shop in...

... Varanasi called The Real Pure Ghee Shop, and a sign hangs outside it saying, "Our ghee is real and pure. Anyone proving it impure will be given a cash reward of five thousand rupees at once." And below it in large red letters is written, "Many times such prizes have been given!" This is to say, do not doubt in either way; the ghee is pure and the reward is also guaranteed. The greater...

... made inquiries of passing travelers about which place he should visit first, about whether it was possible to return, and so on. He was a man of great worldly experience, and he was of the firm opinion that one should find out as much as possible before setting out for any place. Eventually a passing deity said to him, "This is difficult! Come, I will show you both the places, and then you can...

... they only cause us to wander, enters into the refuge of Rama, saying, nahin ram bin thaon - Rama is the only refuge. Right now you are in the refuge of your senses. We should look at this from one more aspect. The senses are many; you can count at least five. But they do not end at five, because each of the senses has many forms, each of the senses is a crowd in itself. So one who takes refuge in the...

... Brahman in the world. As long as you are still surrendered to the senses, you find the world even in God. The day you are surrendered to Rama, you will start seeing God even in what we call the world. Nahin Ram Bin Thaon means your refuge is within you; you are running around carrying your destination within you. And you are unnecessarily searching for it here and there, and listening to your senses...

...?" "Half a pound of kidley." "Are you sure you don't mean half a pound of kidney?" "That's what I said, diddle l?" It is a question of language. Once a sannyasin asked an Indian in a chai shop for information. He said, "Excuse me, where can I buy some shampoo?" The chaiwalla said, "You are from which country?" "Australia," said the...

.... "What do you think?" "Oh, oh yes," he said, "you are a tourist or you are coming for study?" "l want to buy some shampoo!! Do you know where I can buy some?" "What? What you want?" "Shampoo!" "Oh yes, you can buy." "But where can I buy it?" "In shop you can buy!" "Yes, but which shop?" "What you...

... said, "Everything I will do. I know the way, I know the whole map, but it will cost you much. It is not an easy thing. It is for the first time in the whole history of humanity that you will be getting divine clothes; you may be the first and the last. And I will have to bribe the angels, persuade somebody to steal, and then I have to fly to heaven and come back... It is a long journey and...

... matter? Only one other Master - Sufi Master, Mulla Nasruddin - had done that, nobody else in the whole history of humanity. Iran has not been able to produce anybody better, higher, greater than Mulla Nasruddin. Nasruddin was going to visit a place, and his disciples were following him, and he was riding on his donkey; sitting backwards. A crowd started gathering; the disciples started feeling a little...

..., go anywhere. Let them avoid you! This will be a great thing... He never comes to Poona; he used to come in the past. This is the time, now he soul come - now the spring has come to Poona. He used to visit town when it was dead. Now he should come and I will send five thousand sannyasins and you will see that even an enlightened person dances. Of course. it will not be a very beautiful dance, but he...

... understanding. They can understand only that which is written in their scriptures. They cannot understand anything else. Howsoever rotten it is... and much of it is bound to be rotten; the world has grown, man has come of age. A man went into a butcher's shop and asked for half a pound of kidley. "I beg your pardon," said the butcher. "I want half a pound of kidley." "Say that again...

... sannyasin. "America?" queried the Indian. "Not America - Australia!" "England? Germany? Oh, yes... Germany people very good. You are married or single?" "Not married," said the swami. "But where can I buy some shampoo?" "What you want?" "Shampoo!" "For what you want this?" "To wash my balls!" snapped the sannyasin...

..., and so did Dayananda, for a symbol is a symbol and not God. It is with the aid of a symbol that you set out on a journey; it is not the end in itself. Suppose your beloved makes you a gift of a handkerchief worth four annas. If you try to sell it in the market you will not even get two annas for it. Who will buy an old hankie? Perhaps it might fetch a small price in a secondhand shop. But for you it...

... Nanak a message to come and see him. Nanak replied, "You will have to come and visit, O king, for Nanak is in that realm from which visiting people is out of the question." So Babar himself went to the prison to see. He was very impressed by Nanak's personality. He brought him to the palace and offered him the choicest wine. Nanak laughed and sang a song in which he told the king that Nanak...

... completed your full analysis you will suddenly realize that the flower is no more. With all your investigations you could not locate the beauty of the flower. Therefore scientists do not accept beauty as such. Isn't it strange? The very first response to looking at a flower involves its beauty, yet this is completely lost in scientific research. What is destroyed by the first stroke of science is the very...

... immeasurable? When we cannot locate it through any means of measurement, then we claim that it doesn't exist. If we were wise we would say that all our ways of measuring take us only up to maya and no further. Therefore we must devise some other means than measurement to know Him. The method of science is measuring, investigating, examining, defining. The method of religion is absolutely different; it is not...

... do know, but they see no profit in God. They know meditation leads to bliss, but bliss has no market value. If you try to sell it who will buy? In their own language people want to know the value, the price, of what can be attained through meditation. They are not wrong in enquiring, for the economics of life is based on value. For one hour of meditation, how many rupees could you have earned in...

... your shop? If you attain something of equal value or more, then meditation is worthwhile; otherwise it is poor business and useless. Unfortunately, what you get in meditation has no value. As long as you ask the price of things you will be unable to begin meditation, for you are held in the grip of the world of values, samsara. Whereas God means to enter into pricelessness and non-value. PRICELESS...

... ARE HIS QUALITIES, AND HIS TRADING, TOO; PRICELESS ARE HIS SALESMEN, AND HIS STOREHOUSES; Who are His salesmen? Those whom we call saints, realized men, buddhas. They have come to sell you something that you have not the courage to buy. They want to give you something priceless, but you aren't ready to take it. You feel that which is given free is bound to be worthless. God is given free, so you...

... reason, doesn't touch our understanding. Then we raise a wall between them and ourselves, and we make separate compartments. When you are in the gurudwara you are a different man from when you are in your shop. In the temple you shed your tears of adoration and sway with emotion. In the mosque you are different from the marketplace. There seem to be two different persons, not one; it is also a skillful...

.... Video Available: N.A. Length: N.A. [NOTE: This is a translation from the Hindi discourses: Nahim Ram Bin Thaon. It is being edited for publication, and this version is for reference only.] Question BELOVED OSHO, BEFORE WE ASK ANYTHING WE WOULD LIKE TO OFFER OUR GRATITUDE AND GREETINGS TO YOU. THE MYSTICS HAVE ALWAYS SAID THAT "THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO BUT IN." YOU ALSO SAY THE SAME. WE ARE...

... compiled in the scriptures, but really it could not be compiled. The external, the shell, was compiled, but the inner essence was left behind. The outer lines were traced, but the inner, the soul, remained untouched. This phrase, Nahin Ram Bin Thaon - no refuge other than Rama - is unique. In this one statement all the Vedas, all the Upanishads, all the Gitas are contained. If this one statement is...

... to remain a free commodity for long, because that too is limited. In big cities like New York and Bombay only the wealthy will be able to buy oxygen; the poor will have to exist on polluted air. Just as now the poor live on polluted water, in dirty dwellings, in filthy clothes, in the future they will have to live on polluted air - because they will not be able to buy pure air. If this situation...

... you too, because peace too is an element, just like the coolness of the air; it is not just your imagination. You visit a garden; sitting there the cool breeze touches you and everything in you cools down to your very core. Peace is also a similar elemental force. If I am at peace, and if you can even sit quietly by my side, in a state of acceptance, then the peace which is within me will also...

... visited them. Nobody can visit after the sun has set; then the Jaina nun is unavailable. This is just to protect her celibacy, to protect her repressed sexuality. So this was the arrangement, that after dark they could come down and meet me, and nobody would know - and this house was outside the city, far away from the community where Jainas live. But the next morning, when I was walking in the garden...

... argument was not going to remain just an argument with Mahavira, it was going to decide the fate of millions of people. Now the whole of China, which is one fourth of the world, and the other remaining Asian countries, which are all Buddhists - Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Tibet, are all Buddhist - they all eat meat. On each butcher's shop you will find a notice written in...

... to create the concept of the devil?" The arithmetic is very simple. The arithmetic is that you cannot create God without creating the devil. It is absolutely necessary for God's existence, because where are you going to dump everything that is wrong in the world? If only God is there then he is responsible for everything - for Buchenwald, or any other concentration camp of Adolf Hitler, where...

... keep him clean and good - he is the good guy - you need a bad guy in contrast. And you can dump everything wrong on the bad guy: it is the devil. In Germany Adolf Hitler was the prophet of God; in England he was the devil. Mothers used to make their children afraid. If they were playing outside and their mother did not want them to stay outside, just one thing was enough: "Adolf Hitler is coming...

... passing through the street where there were many shops of marble and different kinds of stone sellers. He used to go there often to find good pieces of marble. In front of the first shop, on the other side of the road, there was a huge piece of marble, very ugly looking, and it had been lying there for almost five years. He had never paid any attention to it. He went around the marble, looked at it...

..., touched it, and was immensely happy. He came back to the owner of the shop and asked, "What will you take for that stone?" The shop owner said, "Nothing, you can take it, because I have kept it for five years - and nobody wants it. And I am paying unnecessary rent for it. I cannot keep it in the shop, it is too big. So I am keeping it on the other side of the road on somebody else's land...

..., and he is charging me rent for it. You are the first man in five years who has even inquired about it. Thousands of sculptors have been coming to the shop, but none has even paid attention to the stone. You can take it joyfully, with my thanks. You need not pay for it because I am getting fed up with it." Michelangelo arranged for the stone to be carried to his home, and he said to the...

... had ever seen. But Michelangelo said, "It was Mary and Jesus who called me. I was coming into your shop and they called me, saying, 'We are encaged in this stone - just give us freedom.'" That's how every artist works. Before he starts making a statue he has already seen it in his vision. Then he has just to remove the unnecessary parts. The master is the greatest artist in the world. He...

... master at all. He is going to destroy much in you - only then the real can be discovered. And you are asking me, what can be done when the master is at the door. You can do only one thing, being a professor, intellectual... I remember a story in Mulla Nasruddin's life.... He used to visit the cafe every evening, and he always talked and bragged about everything. That day he was bragging about his...

... together for almost sixty years. They had had their honeymoon in Paris. He said, "Before I die I have a great desire to go back to Paris to the same hotel, to the same room, to visit the same places that we visited when we had our honeymoon." The wife was also excited. They both went to Paris - the hotel was the same, the room was the same, the places they went to see were the same. But the old...

... that you lost trust, which is an immense treasure of your being. By trusting everybody you can lose a few things. They may steal your money, but if you can continue to trust even those... trust is a great treasure. Trusting people who can cheat you, who are going to cheat you, is real trust. I am not going to cheat you, I am not going to steal anything from your house. I have already stolen you. I am...